Daniel Garofalo, at the Penn Connects display at the offices of Facilities and Real Estate Services, at the Left Bank. He will be both a senior facilities planner as well as Penn’s first environmental sustainability coordinator.

Daniel Garofalo has been appointed the University of Pennsylvania’s first environmental sustainability coordinator and senior facilities planner, responsible for Penn’s sustainability strategy, including energy conservation, waste management, green buildings, transportation and planning.

This coordinator position results from President Amy Gutmann’s signing of the American College and University President’s Climate Commitment in February 2007, which commits Penn to preparing a plan that leads the University towards climate neutrality over the next several years.

“The role Dan will play is enormously important to the University as we develop our long-range plan for sustainability,” said Anne Papageorge, vice president for facilities and real estate services. “He has already been a leader among his peers in helping to research and establish sound polices in the higher education sector.”

Mr. Garofalo is a founding member of the US Green Building Council and current chair of the Delaware Valley Chapter, and he was the founder of Community Design Collaborative, Philadelphia’s pro-bono design center. He has served twice as a Peace Corps volunteer, first in Malawi, in southeastern Africa in 1992-94, where he worked as the architect in charge of design for the capital city of Lilongwe, and in 2005 on a three-month assignment to Sri Lanka, an island in the Indian Ocean, south of India, to assist in disaster recovery after the tsunami.

“Dan has been a champion of sustainability and sound environmental stewardship for many years,” said University Architect David Hollenberg. “We look forward to his continued guidance and forethought in his new position.”

Mr. Garofalo, a LEED-certified architect, has been a planner and architect in Penn’s Facilities and Real Estate Services Division since 2002. He received a bachelor’s degree in architecture from the University of Virginia, a master’s in architecture from Penn’s School of Design and a master’s in government administration from Penn’s Fels Institute of Government.